Store-service apparatus



(No Model.)

B. P. OSGOOD.

UNITE STATES PATENT Orrrce.

STORE-SERVICE. APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 357,851, dated February 15, 1887.

Application filed June 7, 1853. Serial No. 97,376. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN P. Oseoon, of Maldenfin the county of Middlescx and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Store'Service Apparatus; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention is an improved cash-car apparatus or system for salesrooms and the like.

Heretofore and prior to niyi nvention a cashcarrier has been devised consisting of an elevated wireway with a car mounted on wheels adapted to run upon the way, and provided with an endless cord attached to the car and running over driving-wheels at each end of the way, with means for working the wheels and cord, and thus drawing the car back and forth. Such a cash-carrier is shown in the United States patent to Brown, No. 165,473, granted in 1875.

Also prior to my invention I am aware that loads have been supported on hooks carried on trucks which ran on an elevated way, and were moved by pushing. In such cases, so far as I am aware, the load or the receptacle containing the load was, when moving on the way, attached loosely to the wheel or wheels, so that a push or single impulse would cause the load to swing or oscillate in line with its movement, and this swinging or oscillation, though not greatly objectionable with heavy loads, or when the load was pushed all the way by a continuous or prolonged pushing, is not practicable where a light load is required to be sent by a single impulse from one end of a line of considerable length to the other.

I have found by practical use that a freelymoving car adapted to be thrown by the single impulse of a push from one end of a store to the other, or from the salesmans stand to the cashiers desk, usually a hundred feet and more, is practical, rapid, does not (lisfigure the store, and does not get out of repair in use. There are no pulleys to provide, put up, or keep in repair, or to disfigure the store; no

cord to stretch or break, or rattle of machinery; but to adapt the free movement of a car or carrier to this special service, where the car (which with its load is light) must go the en tire length of the way on the momentum ofits original single impulse or push, and where the sender cannot in practice follow it, all

rocking or oscillating movement in the line of the impulse must be eliminated. To effect this I have provided for the car two wheels in line with each other and mounted in a suitable frame. This prevents any rocking of the frame longitudinally on the wire or in line with the impulse, and any slight lat-' eral oscillation is not injurious. Further, the car, (or that part on which the hand is placed in impelling the can) when impelled,must be rigid with the wheel-frame, on which it is supported in the direction of the length of the car or line of movement. If it be attached by a hook, even if there be a twowheel frame on the car, the load, when started by an impulse of the hand in line with the wire or track, will oscillate in that line, and

interferes with the progress of the frame as seriously as if the frame oscillated on one wheel. so that when impelled it will be rigid in the direction of its movement, and when pushed with its lead will move as one solid body. As the car is required to go back and forth between the salesman and cashier, it is manifest that the wire must be practically horizontal.

When placed in a store, a cash-car apparatus constructed according to the conditions hereinbefore explained, and substantially as hereinafter explained, may be put up by simply stretching the wire from one end of the store to the other as taut as practicable and without intermediate supports. \Vhen so stretched it is scarcely observable, and nothing more is required than to place the ear thereon, the car being previously fitted for the purpose, and the store is not obstructed by workmen. The wire fitted to sustain the necessary tension will support the car indefinitely without appreciable wear or liability to disarrangement. Manifestly the wire and its car may be duplicated or multiplied according to the requirements of the store.

Having thus given a general statement of the conditions and limitations of my invention, I proceed to describe it in detail and with refference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a plan view of the wires I therefore attach the car to the frame stretched from convenient points in the store and converging to the practical common point at the cashiers desk. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the car. Fig. 3 shows a section of the car on line 00 at of Fig. 2. r

In the drawings, a represents the horizontal wires, connected to a fixed support at'each end. They are shown as converging from these fixed supports in different parts of the store to the cashiers desk, (indicated 211313,) where they are attached to a common bar, A. The bar and other supports must be of sufficient strength to allow the wires to be put under tension, so that they may be held practically horizontal throughout, and so that a car impelled by a push applied by the hand of the operator may pass, by its own momentum, from one end to the other, in either direction. As shown, the ends of the wires are threaded and are strained by means of nuts 0. The-wires shown are all alike, and each has its appropriate car, so that a detailed description of one answers for all.

The car shown consists of a box, B, which may be of any suitable shape or size under the limitations herein explained. It is suspended beneath the wire on wheels d (1, running on the wire one behind the other, by means of hang ers e e, which form a frame for the wheels. The two wheels, one behind the other, prevent any longitudinal oscillation on the axle, to which one wheel would render it liable, and the box or car, being fixed to the hangers, cannot be made to oscillate longitudinally thereon, and moves, with its load, as one rigid body. It is therefore adapted to be impelled from one end of the way to the other in either direction simply by an original impulse given at the start and the untrammeled momentum thereby acquired, and a single impulse being once given the car moves certainly to its destination without further attention from the operator.

A buffer, of india-rubber or some equivalent elastic material, is placed axially upon the wire at or near the end, in order to arrest it withhangers,

out too severe a shock. I prefer to make this stop adjustable by means of a set-screw or other suit-able means, whereby it may be set in any desired position.

The wires may be stretched out in an obvious manner, and throughout the store are free from intermediate supports.

I claim as my invention' 1. In a cash-car apparatus;a wire stretched horizontally between fixed supports at each end and in the described relation to the cashiers desk, in combination with a freely-moving car held below the wire on wheel-hangers, to which it is rigidly connected, the wheels thereof being fitted to run one behind the other on the wire, whereby the car is held rigidly V against oscillation longitudinally of the way, the whole moving structure bein g thus adapted to be impelled as a solid body from one end of the way to the other in either direction by the momentum imparted by a single impulse or push, substantially as described.

2. In a cash-car apparatus, a wire stretched horizontally betweenfixed supports-at each end and in the described relation to the cashiers desk, and having adjustable stops placed axially on said wire, in combination with a freely-moving car held below the wire on wheelto which it is rigidly connected, the wheels thereof being fitted to run one behind the other on the wire, whereby the car is held rigidly against oscillation longitudinally of the way, the whole moving structure being thus adapted to be impelled as a solid body from one end of the way to the other in either direction by the momentum imparted by a single impulse'or push, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

nowin 1 oscoon.

WVitnesses:

SARAH T. PENNEY, J OHN E. FULLER. 

